Fugitive found from America's Most Wanted tip

Tricia Bishop

A Jamaican national wanted on federal racketeering charges alleging he was part of a pot-distribution ring was arrested in New York City this week after he was featured on an episode of “America’s Most Wanted,” the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office announced Friday.

Dean “Journey” Myrie, 39, was taken into custody Tuesday after federal agents received a tip. Myrie, who was in the country illegally, was indicted last year in Baltimore’s U.S. District Court along with five others from Jamaica, Florida, New Jersey and California. They’re accused of participating in a drug gang known as the “Brown Organization,” which is said to have distributed more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana since 2000 in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Arizona, New York and Jamaica.

Myrie and two others are also accused of kidnapping, torturing, dismembering and murdering Michael Knight, a 50-year-old Woodlawn man who was part of the Brown gang according to authorities, in December 2009.

The defendants all face a maximum of life in prison for the racketeering charges, and those accused in Knight’s murder face the death penalty. Myrie had an initial appearance in New York U.S. District Court Thursday and will be transported to Baltimore during the next few weeks, prosecutors said.